A big white-tailed buck has hit the ground in Fannin County, Texas. The lucky hunter is Bonham resident Jason Sluder, who’s family land paid off big this season. Jason had never before seen the big buck until he showed up during archery season. Although not typically thought of as “big buck country,” there have been other big bucks shot in Fannin County. Just goes to show that a once in a lifetime buck can show up just about anywhere, at anytime.
Source: “To start off this guy showed up on my game cam roughly 3 weeks ago never seen before by me and had no previous pics from years past. My world got turned upside down. I couldn’t concentrate at work, I daydreamed about this big Fannin County buck during every conversation had and it was all I could think of. I kept it quiet and only confided in a few people just to get confirmation of what I was looking at.
Over the next couple of weeks I kept hand corn on the ground, checked my cams and collected nothing but night time pics of him. I bow hunted him hard over that same time span but knew that when the gun opener rolled around I was gonna have to make a move. Sure enough two days before the opener I had heard a rumor that someone had seen him during daylight on another property and my heart sank but you can bet I had my .300 when I walked to the stand Saturday morning on the opener. I knew it was a matter of time before someone ground checks this bad boy.”
The big buck’s antlers have been officially scored using the Boone and Crockett Club system. Sluder’s buck was estimated to be 6 1/2 years old and has 18 scorable points. The real kicker is the mass. The Fannin County bruiser sported almost 50 inches in mass measurements, meaning the circumference of the buck’s beams are about 65% bigger than most mature bucks harvested in Texas. The official score for the Sluder buck checks in at 214 6/8 gross, 199 6/8 net.